Mutual Ties
by sametheeagle95
Summary: Captain William Lennox's first year with the Transformers…and the first casualties of a war that isn't ours…
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers but I do own my OC's. Please enjoy.

**_In Which We Become Mortal_**

It was an inevitable fact of life that all things must die. Ever since the death of his grandfather eight years previous, William Lennox had learned to come to terms with the fact that they were mortal and must all die.

But it never made it any easier.

He stared at the fallen hero's casket, draped in the colors of the American flag with the Autobot insignia blazed into the solid oak wood. The words couldn't come through his choked-up throat so he simply pressed his palm against the wood in the effort to convey his good-byes.

It never made it any easier.


	2. In Which Will Develops Nerves of Steel

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers but I do own my OC's. Please enjoy.

**_In Which Will Develops Nerves of Steel_**

_Three years ago:_

"Captain Lennox, can you keep a secret?"

Not exactly what he was expecting as the opening question to his interview.

Casting a dubious glance at his interviewer, a sharp and feisty woman with curly blonde hair and hawk-sharp brown eyes, William didn't immediately answer.

"What kind of secret are we talking about here?" He answered neutrally, his tactician's mind trying to keep up with the change in conversation. By the tense and rigid posture of the woman, Charlotte Mearing, before him and the exhaustion that hung beneath her eyes, he knew that she was not in the mood to be trifled with. She practically radiated stress before him.

"Secrets that are better kept from the eyes of the public." She answered, her tone guarded as she scrutinized him with her eyes.

"I thought honesty was always the best policy."

"Not when it can destroy society as we know it."

William cocked an eyebrow at her. What could be so serious that society as he knew it would unravel? It reminded him of a bad sci-fi film. "You wouldn't happen to be talking about aliens would you Director Mearing?" He asked at an attempt to lighten her mood.

Wrong thing to say.

Her lips pursed into a tighter line and her eyes narrowed fractionally at him. Her shoulders got even tenser, if that was at all possible, and her hands clenched on her arms so hard that he thought her manicured nails would draw blood from her pale skin. "And what gave you that idea Captain?" She asked as she tried to relax and smile at him. He didn't fall for it.

"Reminded me of a sci-fi film I saw a couple of weeks back with my wife." He answered coolly. He leaned in towards her, dark brown eyes focused on her. "But I'm not exactly wrong, am I?"

"Depends on what you want to think. What you say now can decide your entire future Captain, choose your words wisely."

_As if I haven't already been mincing my words,_ he thought. A headache pulsed behind his eyes but he resisted the temptation to rub his eyes. It was just a headache, he could handle it. "What do you want me to say?"

"I want your opinions on extraterrestrial life." She said in an icy, clipped tone. What had her so angry?

"Religious or political?" He asked. She let out a frustrated sigh.

"Your views Captain, whatever faction of life they belong to."

He paused, gathering his thoughts. This interview was really taking a turn for the weird and he had a bad feeling in the pit of his gut. "I believe," he finally said in a slow, moderate voice, eyes trained to watch every little movement of her body. "That we're not alone in the universe."

"And why is that?"

He shrugged. "The universe is too big for just us Director Mearing. Now what kind of life you and I are thinking of is something entirely different but I've never believed we're alone in the universe." There was a pause as the words hung in the air. "Did I pass?"

She stared at him, eyes as sharp and impassive as a wall of granite, until he had to start squashing the urge to fiddle. He had seen combat duty in the Middle East and proposed to his wife, both infinitely scarier than being trapped in a white cubicle with an almost nuclear woman, but something about her eyes made him anxious.

They were eyes that knew a secret.

"Come with me Captain Lennox. There's someone you need to meet." Without so much as a backwards glance at him, she marched out of the room, leaving William to scramble after her. Just outside the door, two men in suits waited with her, talking in low voices with the same stressed eyes. One of them was a tall, burly African-American man and the other was a thin Caucasian with salt-and-pepper hair. As a rule of thumb, William had learned not to trust military officials that wore suits.

"Captain Lennox, Director Mearing has informed us that you've made candidacy." The salt-and-pepper man said, his forced grin making Will immediately nervous. His nametag said he was _Agent Reginald Simmons_. "Not many people make it this far."

"What else did she say?" He asked cautiously.

"That it's time for you to meet our visitors." The African-American man said. A nametag identified him as _Agent William Fowler_. "Come with us son."

Recognizing he didn't really have a choice, Will followed them through the long, dark corridors of the base. It was winter time outside, meaning that the light that filtered through the occasional window was a pale, grayish hue. It made the whole base seem cold and inhospitable, like invisible eyes would come out of the plain white walls and stare him down like Director Mearing.

The only noises down the long hallway were the sounds of the men's shoes going _thump, thump, thump_ while Director Mearing's high heeled shoes sounded like gunshots on the linoleum. Not exactly a comforting sound.

The foursome stopped at a heavy ironclad door that just screamed "SECRET" to Will. He maintained a polite military stance as Director Mearing fiddled with access keys to the door, hands clasped behind his back as his mind raced a million miles an hour. Had they made first contact? Was there an alien in the brig somewhere? Images of bug eyed green little things came to his mind but he pushed them aside. He had no idea what to expect and simply tried to keep an open mind.

"What you are about to see is above Top Secret," Director Mearing said after the system confirmed her access into the secret room just beyond. "Should we deem you a threat to society or unable to handle this information, you will have your memory wiped."

"Memory wipe?" He asked, the fear slipping through slightly.

"Just try to keep an open mind son." Agent Fowler advised, pulling the door open for the rest of them to go through. Director Mearing and Agent Simmons waited, eyes on Will, and he realized that they wanted him to go first. Keeping his fear and confusion behind a calm face, he walked with measured paces into the complex just beyond the door, eyes on everything.

The complex was really just a remodeled hanger, locked up tight to keep out the winter chill. It was huge and open with lots of scaffolding above it like a metal net. Anybody in the room stopped what they were doing and stared at Will, who tried to smile politely at them. The air was incredibly still, just like it was before a thunderstorm came on the horizon.

In the very center of the room, a lineup of cars sat. Will was certainly no car person by any means but he knew a nice car when he saw one and these were all very nice looking cars. Five in all, there was one red and blue Kenworth truck, a police car and what looked like a NASCAR racing car next to it with screaming double 38's on the side, a huge black truck that looked like it could take on anything, even the truck, and a sleek and sexy silver Porsche at the very end. Anybody down on the main floor working gave the cars an unnaturally wide berth, something that immediately came to his attention.

These weren't normal cars.

"Cars?" He asked, finding there was nothing else to be said as he watched the unmoving vehicles below. "Are you here to show off your vehicles to me?"

The three of them shared a look. "They're not our vehicles Captain Lennox. These are our…visitors." Agent Simmons said. For whatever reason, it looked like it was painful for him to say that.

"These?" He asked incredulously, sweeping a hand at the lineup of cars. A smile jumped onto his face at the stray thought that came to his mind. "What did you do, find them in space?"

"In a manner of speaking." Director Mearing answered, a queer smile of her own on her face. He really didn't like that smile.

"They found us." Agent Fowler supplied helpfully.

Now thoroughly lost, Will turned to scrutinize the cars again. They looked like beautiful and incredibly expensive cars, cars that he had always dreamed of owning, but as he studied them even harder, he realized that he go the sense that it felt like they were _staring_ back at him, almost as if they could sense him. A common insignia, something that bore a resemblance to a face, was on the hoods of all of them.

"What are they really?" He asked cautiously, staring at the cars like he could see right through them.

"Why don't you come ask them yourself?" Director Mearing asked, gesturing for him to walk down the stairs to the cars themselves. Will shot her a look that screamed "_Are you serious?_". She gave him one back that said "_Don't question me._"

Conceding to her authority, Will turned and hesitantly walked down the three flights of stairs that led to the ground floor. As he made his way closer and closer to the cars, he tried to avoid the uncomfortable stares of those already in the complex. It felt like this was some sort of cult meeting and he hadn't been invited.

He decided to fight the pressure with the only way he knew how: humor. Deciding to indulge Director Mearing on her previous comment, Will struck up a conversation with the cars as soon as he was close enough, taking to the large black truck that seemed to call his name. That was his kind of car, the kind he had always pleaded with Sarah to let him have.

"Hi there, the name's William Lennox, I'm a captain in the U.S. Army and I'm here to talk to a lineup of cars that seems to be more than meets the eye." He said, ignoring the gawking stares that were directed at him. No one had ever quite acted like this before. "So, I've been meaning to ask, what are you really? I mean, you're some really, really nice looking cars and all but-"

The sounds of hissing and whirring put his monologue to an end. For the briefest of moments, the cars remained exactly as they were, but then that moment ended. Letting out a loud curse, Will jumped back as the cars _broke apart_, revealing the intricate silver workings underneath the colored frames, and began to rearrange themselves like a very complex and living Rubik's cube. Before his very stunned and wide eyes, the cars turned from vehicles into something that vaguely resembled a giant metal titan, the very tallest of them well over twenty feet above him.

"Captain Lennox," Director Mearing said from behind him with a wry smile on her face. It never got any older watching their new recruits meet their guests for the first time. "Meet the Autobots."

Will let out a string of violent curses as their "guests" finished rearranging themselves into their titan humanoid forms. This was _so_ not what he had been expecting when he got up that morning for work. What was he gonna tell Sarah? _Hi honey, I went to work thinking I was going to get a promotion and ended up meeting giant alien robots! How was your day?_

"Greetings Captain William Lennox," The biggest of them, the twenty foot titan that was the red and blue truck before, spoke in a voice that made Will's bones rattle. He cautiously and carefully bent down to put his face near the completely stunned human's, his piercing blue optics reading straight into Will's wide brown ones. "I am Optimus Prime."

* * *

"I think I'm gonna need therapy."

Will ran his fingers through his spiky brown hair and let out another ragged sigh. His headache, only a slightly painful pulsing behind his eyes, had now erupted into a series of earthquakes in his skull. He was sitting in one of the corners of the room on some crates, back to the room and the robots as he tried to sort through all of this information.

One of the men in the complex, another military captain who had been made privy to the existence of these Transformers, chuckled as he watched Will try to absorb the information that had been thrown at him. He was a tall, well built African-American, his dark eyes amused and sympathetic. His badge told Will that he was _Captain Robert Epps_, not that that helped any right now. "It's alright man, just take a deep breath. It's always tough the first few days."

"Few days?" Will croaked. He couldn't even handle the next few minutes that came at him; how the heck was he going to survive the next few_ days_? He glanced over his shoulder to confirm that there really were giant metal titans in the complex that chatted easily between themselves and the other humans in the complex. The black one caught his eyes and Will quickly turned away.

Oh yes, they were _very real_.

Will cursed lowly. Now everything made sense, all of those strange questions Director Mearing had been asking him, the high level of security and secrecy around this whole area. Ever since early September, any military officials without a high enough clearing weren't allowed anywhere near the east wing of the Carson City, Nevada U.S. Military complex. Rumors had abounded as to why but now Will understood.

There were freaking metal alien robot-car things in the east wing.

"Why aren't they in Area 51?" Will asked in the attempt to do something that wasn't going to blow his mind. He had yet to talk to the alien robots.

Robert Epps chuckled. "You think they could fit them in that place? A lot of those folks in here are from Area 51 though." He said, jerking a thumb towards the people that bore a vague resemblance to scientists in their white lab coats. "Makes our job a lot easier."

"Easier, right." Will murmured, rubbing his eyes in the attempt to alleviate his headache. "Must get pretty crazy around here with…them."

Epps shook his head as he chuckled again. "You have no idea."

Heavy thudding that could only belong to one of the robots came from behind them. Still unused to the robots, Will jumped back like lightning, the product being on active duty for two oversea missions, while Epps turned calmly to face the giant red and white robot that had joined the fray. "What's up Ratchet?"

"I am here to check up on the newest recruit, making sure he hasn't blown a fuse." Ratchet answered simply, his voice smooth and steady. The armor plating on the outside of his frame marked him as an ambulance. How many car forms did these things come in? "Hold still William Lennox."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Will shouted, jumping away from Ratchet as he leaned into to get a better optic scan of his organic body. While he knew that the robots weren't threatening, he still panicked that one was coming so close to him. He had no idea what those blue eyes, or optics as Epps told him they were called, intended to do to him. Ratchet leaned back to give the human space.

"Hey, it's cool! Ratch's just making sure you're still doin' alright." Epps assured him, quickly grabbing Will before he could stumble over any of the crates and give himself a real injury for Ratchet to attend to. "He's not gonna hurt you."

Will hardly looked comforted as he attempted to twist away from Ratchet and Epps. Giant metal doctors. That's it; his mind was officially going to blow.

"I am sorry if my approach startled you." Ratchet huffed, blowing mildly warm air over the two men. Epps knew that they were lucky he wasn't in a worse mood; he had been blasted by Ratchet's air when he was in a really, _really_ bad mood and that sucked. "I merely wished to check up with your health." By the tone in his voice, Ratchet didn't sound like he had done this out of the kindness of his spark.

Will opened up his mouth to respond before simply clacking it shut. Epps chuckled again. "Do your thing Ratch." He kept a hand on Will's shoulder as if lending his emotional strength to the shell-shocked man.

Huffing, Ratchet leaned back in to scan Will. "I am merely scanning you to make sure that you are well." He told the organic, whose frantic heart rate and massive amounts of adrenaline present in his system told him that he still wasn't over his previous scare. "Other than slightly higher blood pressure and the normal fight-or-flight response, William Lennox is fine." Shutting of his scanners with a thought, Ratchet got up slowly so that he wouldn't startle the human again. He hated it when they got jumpy like this; he had to be extra careful and he hated not being able to take a step without looking.

He turned away from the two humans back over to the cadre of his kind, the "Transformers" Director Mearing had told Will about. It was an imperfect translation but the human language wasn't designed to accompany their language. They couldn't even speak it; their vocal cords couldn't make the necessary sounds of their basic alphabet, much less their sentence structure.

"How is the human?" Optimus asked as Ratchet approached the five Autobots Will had been introduced to. Alongside Optimus, their leader, stood Jazz, the second-in-command, Prowl, the Head Tactician and his charge Smokescreen, and Ironhide, their weapon's specialist. Ratchet himself was Chief Medical Officer of the Autobots.

Ratchet sighed. He wanted to converse in his native language but to do so while in the presence of humans was impolite. "He's alright other than the normal responses to large scares. He will recover."

"He's a queer one," Ironhide rumbled, blue optics on the form of their newest captain. "He was talking to us before he knew what we were. No one's done that before."

"I think he's funny." Smokescreen countered, a big smile on his faceplates as he waved at Will when the human turned to face them. If Ironhide always had a negative opinion of everyone, Smokescreen always had a positive opinion of everyone. "Once he gets used to us, I think he'll be great!"

"Smokescreen, you're scaring him." Prowl said calmly, watching Will turn away from them again. Disappointed, Smokescreen dropped his hand even as his doorwings drooped. All that morning he had begged and pleaded with Prowl to let him be there when a human met them for the first time. By a miracle, Prowl had somehow agreed.

"That meeting certainly went better than the last one." A dry voice said on the scaffolding behind Smokescreen's head. The two not facing Director Mearing, Ironhide and Smokescreen, turned to meet her fierce eyes. "At least we don't have to wipe his memory."

"The last one was pathetic." Ironhide scoffed. The last captain they had introduced them to had a full-out panic attack and had attempted to try and tell everyone about giant robot cars. "He was unworthy of joining our coalition."

"Cost us a buckload of moola too." Agent Simmons grumbled, leaning on the railing alongside his director. "Memory wipe doesn't come cheap."

"And it's painful for the patients." A woman's voice said as she approached the assembled group of humans and Autobots. A short but cheerful woman with curly brown hair, she was the head human physician at the complex where the Autobots were hidden. Her nametag read _Dr. Rachel Becker_. "They have horrible headaches and memory problems afterwards."

"How is Roland doing anyway?" Agent Fowler asked. He had recommended his friend for the position of captain and believed that he would be able to handle it, but apparently, Roland couldn't.

"He's doing alright. We told his wife he fell and cracked his head." Dr. Becker assured him. She turned to face the Autobots. "I heard that our newest captain started talking to you before he officially met you. Is it true?"

"Indeed." Optimus said, a faint smile playing on his faceplates as he thought back to their meeting. Still unused to the alien faceplates of the Cybertronians, the humans failed to notice the smile, though they heard it.

"Sounds like he'll make quiet the captain. When's he going to meet everyone else?"

"Not for some time." Director Mearing told her. "He needs time to adjust to the first six he just met. Heaven help us the day he meets the Twins." She said as she shook her head. Introducing any human, or anyone for that matter, to the Twins was always a dangerous game; no one had any idea how the Twins would react to any given human.

"They're still adjusting tah Earth." Jazz said, his rich voice rolling like water from his vocal processor. "Poor Sunny's goin' out of his processor still about leavin'…" he trailed off as the mood abruptly got heavier. Despite not understanding what was going on, everyone in the complex felt the shift. "Well, give 'em time." He said quickly, trying to steer the conversation a different way.

"Everything okay over here?" Epps asked as he walked over to join the Autobots on the ground floor, Will trailing behind him cautiously. Despite having only been introduced to the Autobots a few weeks ago, he was taking this all extremely well, far better than most. Even those who had had contact with the Autobots longest still got startled if they weren't expecting their alien friends.

"Everything is going as it should if that is what you are asking, Robert Epps." Prowl told him, his voice deep and no-nonsense.

"Not what I meant but I'll let it go." He said with a shrug, patting Ironhide on the leg as he came to stand next to him. "Will's doin' a little better." He announced.

"Emphasis on _little_," Will murmured, something that didn't miss the audios of the towering metal titans. Taking deep, cleansing breaths, Will made himself make eye, or optic, contact with the titans. At least the fear was starting to lose its edge. "What's up?" He offered, unsure of how to start a conversation. Was there some universal greeting to use? "Live long and prosper" didn't quite seem to fit at this exact moment.

"We are discussing your mental health and reaction to our presence." Ironhide offered honestly, white-blue optics focusing on Will unrelentingly. Most organics crumpled under his gaze but Will seemed to hold somehow.

"Ah, my mental health…?" The organic captain trailed off as if not quite sure what to make of the statement. Epps snickered.

"Ratchet simply was informing us that you are unharmed other than your species' flight-or-fight response." Optimus corrected. He felt the urge to shift to a more comfortable position but refrained from doing so. He didn't want to scare the captain anymore than he already was. "Your mental health was not the basis of our current conversation."

"Uh, thanks. Had me…worried there for a little bit." Will told him, craning his neck so he could meet the Autobot leader's eyes. _Optics_, he reminded himself. Epps had given him a basic rundown of their terminology, optics, sparks, processors, frames and more, but Will's head was still spinning trying to keep up with everything.

"The only one who should be talking about any health is her," Epps told Will, pointing up to the scaffolding above them where Director Mearing, the two Agents and a woman in a white coat stood. Seeing Epps pointing up at her, the white-coated woman offered a wave. "Our on-base doctor, Doctor Rachel Becker."

"She from Area 51 too?" Will asked, returning the wave with a strained smile.

"Nah, she's from Minnesota, graduated from Walden University." Epps told him, waving up to Dr. Becker more jovially than Will. "Best doctor you'll ever meet, 'cept for Ratchet over here."

Ratchet huffed in response, drawing Will's attention.

His eyes strayed to meet the jolly one near Ironhide, the one who had waved at him before. While his doorwings were still slouching in disappointment, he was staring at Will hopefully, like his dog would whenever Will had meat or a tasty treat.

Not quite sure why he was looking so hopeful, Will hesitantly waved to him, remembering how excitedly he had waved at Will not too long ago. Perking up immediately, the white-and-blue NASCAR bot returned the wave just as eagerly as before, making Will smile despite himself.

"Who are you supposed to be?" He asked. This one didn't give off as much of a leader aura as the other bots did and he acted a lot younger than them, like he had too much energy and not enough to do with it.

The bot thrilled, a sharp, high sound that caught Will off guard. He jumped noticeably, causing Smokescreen's seniors to share concerned glances with each other. They hoped Smokescreen wasn't going to push Will back into his corner. He was doing well so far. "The name's Smokescreen! It's nice to meet you Captain William Lennox!"

"Er, well, it's nice to meet you too _Smokescreen_." Will said, trying out Smokescreen's designation. It sounded really weird on his tongue. "You can just call me Will or William. Only my squad calls me Captain Lennox."

Smokescreen thrilled again, throwing his face back like he was laughing. He _was_ laughing, Will realized. That thrilling noise must've been the stand in for a human laugh for them. "I guess I'll be calling you that then considering you're gonna be head of my squad!"

The atmosphere got noticeably tenser.

"Wait…what?" Will said, his face crinkling in confusion as his mind tried to make sense of the statement. Epps sucked in a tense breath while Agent Simmons buried his head in his hands and muttered something that sounded like a curse. Prowl's optics narrowed dangerously at his charge, who realized he had just overstepped a line.

"I, uh, what I meant was is that I'm a solider too and since you're above me, I need to refer to you respectfully!" Smokescreen said hastily, his blue-white optics going huge. His doorwings flared out like they always did when they were tense. Ironhide rolled his optics at the youngling's stupidity.

Director Mearing pursed her already pursed lips. Normally when they introduced soldiers to the Autobots they didn't normally mention they were going to be working and fighting alongside them until after they had settled in. The thought of fighting along such titans often scared away many so it was forbidden to mention anything about it during the early stages of initiation, for everyone's sanity.

The reason for the necessary military team up was also taboo until later on.

"Oh…well, it makes…sense." Will conceded. Smokescreen let out a deep vent of air when he realized he had just saved himself a long brig sentence or double shift at Prowl's hands as punishment. "Still, just call me Will."

Optimus nodded. "Then we shall call you by your preferred designation. Welcome to Autobot Outpost Omega One William."


	3. In Which Sarah Has A Long Talk

Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers or Jem but I do own my OC's. Please enjoy.

_*Sorry, short chapter today. This one was being stubborn. I rather enjoyed Jerrica's thought processes; they made me laugh. Review make my day, whether cruel or kind.*_

_**In Which Sarah Has a Long Talk**_

Will stared at his car for a long, long moment. Letting out a sigh and looking around to see if anyone was staring at him like he had lost his mind, Will turned his attention back to the car, which sat completely still in his driveway, it's dark cobalt blue paint glinting in the pale winter sun.

_Snap out of it, you look like a freaking idiot,_ he told himself. _Your car is not a Transformer, Mearing told you that all confirmed Autobots are at Omega Outpost One. Get a grip and just get in the car._

Giving himself a hard mental shake, Will forced his stiff limbs to get up off of his concrete porch steps and walk to the door of his car. The whole way there, all twelve steps of them, his body was as tense as a bowstring.

It was almost twice as bad getting into the car, into the belly of the beast so to say. As he sat down on the leather upholstery, his mind wondered briefly if he were sitting in the Autobots when they were in car form if he sitting inside of their stomach or their lungs. How bizarre must it be for them to have someone sitting inside of them somewhere in their bizarre, alien physiology. What was the steering wheel? What about the gas pedals? The engine?

Deciding he really, _really_ didn't need to know, Will shook his head and gripped the steering wheel like it was a life vest. He was fine. It was just a car, just a car.

Just a freaking car. No alien robots here, nope.

From the window of their house, unbeknownst to Will, Sarah Michelle Lennox watched her husband with worried eyes. He had been so odd for the past few days, so jumpy and distant, so un-Will like. Sarah had lived through his PTSD, something he was a saint about by not putting up a fight and getting help for it, but this was something entirely different.

She absentmindedly chewed on the edge of her thumbnail as she watched Will sit for a moment in his car before turning the engine over and pulling out of the driveway. He briefly met her eyes and gave a smile and a wave to her, which she returned with a small smile of her own.

She had asked him to go pick up a prescription for her headaches for her this morning while she went to one of her good friend's baby shower for the better part of that morning, expecting him to plant a kiss on her cheek like he always did and agree to it. But his face had gone pale and he dropped the spoon he was using to eat his cereal, looking at her like she had just asked him to cut off his arm and feed it to the dog.

"Will? Will, honey, is everything okay?" Sarah asked, laying a hand over her husband's stiff one as she looked at him in worry. Recovering himself, Will forced a smile and laughed.

"Yeah, yeah it's great Sarah. I just, I just had a dream last night about getting in a car accident that kind of freaked me out. It just kind of surprised me." He leaned up and kissed her on the cheek, just like she had been expecting. "Anything for you angel."

Giggling, Sarah turned to rub her nose to her husband's. "Quite the charmer this morning Will. Anything else you happened to dream of?" He grinned wider and shrugged. Placing a gentle kiss on his nose, she drew back. "Don't worry about that accident. You're the best driver I know in the entire state of Nevada."

Even though he had given her that 'devil-may-care' smile that had won her heart two years ago and chuckled heartily at that, Sarah still sensed something was off in her husband. She watched him stare at the car like it was going to bite him and then move like he was forcing himself to walk through boiling acid, her heart getting heavier every minute.

Will _loved_ cars, something his father and his grandfather had passed onto him. The two of them went _rounds_ arguing about Will wanting to get a car and Sarah not wanting to spend so much money on a piece of metal. The more time spent in a car, the better. This skittish behavior was about as normal as tropical flowers blooming naturally in Antarctica.

"I'm telling you Jerrica, something's wrong." Sarah bemoaned as she stared into the bubbly cider in her hands with distant eyes. All around her, her close college and high school friends tittered and chattered amiably with each other, the house that hosted them decorated in frothy pinks and soft blues. A bunch of little onesies and tiny baby clothes were strung along the fireplace in the front room like Christmas stockings while a huge sign in the granite kitchen announced "CONGRATS MOMMA AND BABY! WE TOTS LUV U!" where an assortment of foods sat in what appeared to be little diaper-shaped racks and bib-shaped plates. The most bizarre piece, no doubt chosen by the mother, Kimber, was the cake. Shaped like the rear end of a baby with little feet sticking out from underneath it, the cake was white and blue and read "WELCOME BABY ?" since Kimber and Sean hadn't chosen a name yet. "Will's never done this to me before."

"Maybe he's worried that you're going to get the wrong idea coming here." Jerrica offered, trying to smile reassuringly at her best friend. All it had taken was one glance for her to realize something was off with her friend, really off. Sarah normally loved to party and be girly but the expression on her face belonged to a funeral, not a baby shower.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it honey, you're a young married woman. You're gorgeous, you have a big house, you have a loving husband and nice cars, but there's still something missing in the big picture. You announce to your husband that you are going to go to one of your friend's _baby showers _were _baby_ talk is far and wide with other women in the same position as you. What if you come home with the idea to have a kid of your own? Saying 'I Do' is a pretty serious step for a man but a baby's an even bigger step. Trust me, I had to learn that one the hard way."

Sarah scrunched her face up at Jerrica in confusion. "But what does that have anything to do with him avoiding his car?"

Jerrica gave her one of her 'throw-me-a-bone-here-and-think-about-it' looks. "Sarah, men are strange creatures. If they get stressed out about something, they don't talk about it, not even with their guy friends. They take all of that nervous energy and they channel it into the easiest and farthest thing away from whatever's making them nervous. Sounds like Will went for his cars."

"So…a car is the farthest thing from a baby then?"

Jerrica shrugged, taking a sip from her cider. "Must be. Don't ask me how that one works though." Despite being renowned far and wide for her instinctive understanding of men and their ways, there were still some things that eluded her about the male species.

Sarah sighed even deeper and took a sip of her bubbly cider, the main beverage since champagne or any other drinks of the like had been forbidden by Jerrica, who happened to be Kimber's older sister. Even nine months pregnant, Kimber would have totally gone for the champagne in a heartbeat.

Jerrica's explanation made perfect sense to her but it still didn't explain why Will was _avoiding_ his cars rather than throwing himself completely into them like she was suggesting. Still, what if he was worried about her getting the wrong idea? They talked about having a family but they had never really _talked_ about having a family. It just hadn't been a big enough deal for either of them to push.

She let out a long sigh, twisting her glass in her fingers thoughtfully. Jerrica gave her friend a pitying glance. Being married wasn't easy. Heaven, _men_ weren't easy. "C'mon, don't worry about what Will thinks of you having a baby and just enjoy yourself. That step will come when it's ready, when Will's ready."

"What if he's never ready?" Sarah mumbled, now feeling depressed as the thoughts of cars, men and babies weighed on her mind. Some party this was shaping out to be. "What if it's all about cars, cars, cars? What if he just starts avoiding them all together?"

"Maybe he's trying to go green?" Jerrica offered, realizing that the baby angle wasn't working in her favor. "Walking's kind of the new thing to do ever since those 'You live here, don't treat Earth like crap' commercials with that Jem girl came out."

"Mmm…maybe." Was all Sarah said. From outside where Kimber and most of the party-goers were came the sounds of laughing and shouting. She sincerely hoped that Kimber wasn't doing something stupid. Just because she was with child didn't mean she was less inclined to be an idiot sometimes. "Maybe he got a DWI and didn't tell me about it."

"Will and a DWI?" Jerrica asked in surprise. "Will doesn't drink." She reminded her girlfriend. Will was adamantly against drinking ever since a drunk driver had killed Will's beloved older brother as a teenager, something he had proven over and over again when he simply went for sparkling cider rather than champagne or a good beer when he and Sarah went out for a night.

Sarah groaned in frustration. "Then I don't understand what's going on with him. Nothing else is adding up." Jerrica sighed.

"And that, honey, is why Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus."

* * *

"Name?"

"Sarah Lennox."

"Hmm…Sarah Lennox, Sarah Lennox…" the lady behind the pharmaceutical counter murmured to herself as she searched for the correct prescription for Will. "Ah, Sarah Lennox, one bottle of Excedrin from Doctor Lambert. If I can just get you to sign here?" She pushed the touch pad towards him with a bright smile. He tried to smile in response but it just came out looking painful.

_Just get the bottle, get in the car and drive home. You don't have to think about cars at all today after that, Sarah doesn't have any more plans and neither to do you, just get home…_He reminded himself. Glancing out the huge, open windows at the front of the drug store, he saw his car in the parking lot, the blue paint winking at him in the sunlight.

Winking…could they even wink?

_Don't go there,_ he warned himself with a shake of his head. No point in even going near that sort of thinking; he was just going to give himself a headache and a nervous breakdown.

"Thank you sir and here is your prescription. Have a good day." The woman smiled brightly at him again as he pushed the touch pad with his signature on it back to her.

"Thanks, you too." He said, grabbing the little white bag and slipping out of the line towards the front door. His heart started to pound rapidly and his hands started to sweat as he got nearer and nearer to the door.

"Hey! Will!"

Will stopped dead in the middle of the aisle and glanced around him, looking for the owner of the voice. It sounded a lot like…

"Been a long time since I've seen you around here! I thought your wife ran the errands now!" A middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair and jovial smile stood behind him, a bag of necessities from the store in one hand and a bottle of Dr. Pepper in the other. For the first time since this morning, Will broke into a genuine smile as Jacob Cooke, one of his oldest army friends, walked towards him.

"I've been degraded to an errand boy. You know it gets with the wife." He responded jokingly, chuckling as the two army men pulled each other into a one-armed man hug. "She's out at a party right now with some of her girlfriends."

"Of course she is, good old Sarah!" Jacob pulled back with a laugh, his sparkling blue eyes looking Will over. "My word, still the same as ever. I swear you haven't aged a day since I first met you at basic training."

"Sarah says I've been 23 for the last four years." Will said with a shrug. "It's a curse of mine."

"A curse that most of us wouldn't mind! God must've given you some lucky genes the day you were born. What I wouldn't give to look like I'm still 36."

"Aww c'mon, you don't look that old. You're what, 43 this year?"

"Close, 45. Louise wants to do something special this year but I don't get why. It's not like 45 is a special year. If we're waiting for a special year, why not wait until 50?" Jacob sighed and rolled his eyes. "I love that woman but honestly she doesn't make sense to me sometimes."

Will grinned. "I know the feeling. Sarah can sure throw me for a loop when she tries."

"I'm sure you do. Oh! Speaking of not making sense, I was wondering if I could borrow you for a spell sometime this week. I've been having some difficulties with that new car I got and I was wondering if you could take a look at it for me, work some of that magic of yours."

Will's heart plummeted and his body went cold. Working on a car? As in trying to figure out what was wrong underneath the hood and get the thing going again? Images of the Autobots transforming from car to robot mode and all of the deep, swirling metallic intricacies that made up who they were came rushing to the front of his mind.

"You up for it Willie boy?" Jacob asked, waving his Dr. Pepper bottle in front of Will's blank and panicked stare to snap him out of it. "Or is this week not a good one for ya?"

"I…I'm not sure. I'll, uh, have to check it out with my wife, see if there's not some time I can spare to help fix your…car." Will said, trying to pull himself together. "She's the schedule master after all. Nothing flies without going by her."

"Sounds good. Give me a call when you figure it out for me, will ya? I can't wait to take her for a spin." Jacob grinned devilishly at the thought of tearing up the concrete with a new car, something Will would have normally joined in a heartbeat. "Anyway, I'd stay and chat for a spell but I've gotta get home. We have some company coming over and Louise asked me to grab something for her. I made a solemn vow that I would only be five minutes."

"Ah, well, have fun with that." Will said with a forced smile, trying to push away the cold fear creeping into his mind. "I'll see you around, alright?"

"Sounds good. See you around Willie!"

_Why God? Why did his stupid car have to need fixing up now all of times? Why couldn't it have happened a few days ago?_


End file.
